Beginning in July of 1978, the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences (The Hastings Center) started development of a newsletter for human experimentation committees. These committees, known as Institutional Review Boards, have responsibility for reviewing all research involving human subjects. The newsletter, entitled IRB: A Review of Human Subjects Research, first appeared in March of 1979. It is currently being published ten times a year. Its objective is to provide a systematic means of communicating information related to the conduct of human experimentation and its regulation. The newsletter offers timely news coverage of current policy actions. It provides reports of new administrative guidelines, federal and state legislation, and judicial decisions; systematic review of current social, ethical, and legal problems of human experimentation; case studies based on experiences of local instituional review boards; surveys of recent literature; and letters to the editor.